1st Advent Spiraling upward in Christ

We begin once again the new liturgical year:  The Time of Advent.

We know this is a time of preparation for the Feast of the Incarnation of the Son of God, the birth of Jesus Christ, Christmas.

Here is the challenge for us from the Gospel..where are we in our lives and in our faith?  Has Christ come more and more into our lives and transformed us so that we can be fully alive and free?

Are we more prepared to receive the salvation given to us?

I began the homily deliberately with the phase “once again” because I think we can develop that attitude that we are just restarting the same thing again, and again.  

We can seem we are repeating a cycle, or a circle.

Yet, ideally, that is not what we are called to.

It's not a circle, but a spiral.

The Spiritual Journey that God that invites onto has a seeming repetition, a circle.  We repeat a cycle, because that is the way our solar system works.  The earth turns on its axis, we make an ellipse around the sun.

But we also progress forward, to continue to use science terms, because time is linear.

Linear time with a circle creates a spiral.

When we reflect on where we were spiritually last year, the hope is that we have grown and matured as person.

The hope is that we have let God’s grace transform us and we have matured, even if just a little.

Maturity shows itself by our ability to be prepared for situations;

By our ability to assess and bring peace, joy; to bring the good news into a situation.

Christ clearly wants us to be open to those moments in life when He calls us to be free, to do what is right and just, to be more fully human.

He tells us to be alert!  Be watchful, be prepared!

Christmas is a beautiful holiday that we celebrate..but it’s more than baby Jesus in the crib

This birth of the Son of God as a human has power.

It is God making a statement about God’s self and about our own humanity.

The Incarnation reveals the dignity of all human persons.

The Incarnation, Jesus born into a poor, oppressed family reveals the dignity of those considered by society as weak.

The Incarnation upsets reality as many wanted and still want to have it, and calls to a better way.

We, as Christians, as humans, must be prepared and alert to those times when this Christmas revelation needs to be proclaimed.

We must be alert to the better way that Jesus calls.

Boy, is it needed!

Men, I talk to us for the moment.

This harassment of women, our own sisters, mothers, wives… this sin against the dignity of their humanity is a call that WE MUST MAN UP!

We must be prepared and be alert to those moments when we must speak up and act towards the dignity of all women.

This locker room talk and cheap jokes at women’s expense, this use of porn, this support of men who use and degrade women all must stop because it is an affront to the Good News of Jesus Christ.

This use of the gift of God in our own sexuality is not to be abused to hold power over others, over women.

We must be human, we must be Catholic.  We must be true to our manhood.

So we must grow up!  We men must let God’s grace make us be the men we are called to be.  

All of us, men and women, we must always be prepared and alert to all moments when the Christian message is demeaned

And it is not through Starbucks cups, but in our attitude towards the poor, those who are turned away as immigrants and refugees.

Look at the state of how we treat others, especially the poor.  

We ourselves must be honest with our own attitudes and ideas, and ask ourselves are we more influenced by democrats or republicans, more so than Christ? Because they are not ONE IN THE SAME

We celebrate here in the Eucharist that God loves all, poor and rich alike, men and women alike, all people.

We celebrate and we remember the Good news.

Jesus died for all people and was raised from the dead for all people.  So amazing is God’s love.

Today we light a candle, and the light will grow week after week, to counter the growing darkness.

Are we alert and prepared to accept and act on this light, this love of God?

We we use God’s grace, this Good News to spiral up and grow!  We will reduce the suffering for others, reduce the suffering for our own families…

Or will we circle or spiral down?